


dare.

by pyroallerdyce



Series: (not at all spooky) skywalkers series [october writing challenge 2020] [22]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - 1990s, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M, One Shot Collection, Prompt Fic, Short One Shot, Tumblr Prompt, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000, october writing challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:14:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27151622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pyroallerdyce/pseuds/pyroallerdyce
Summary: Luke and Mara had just turned on a movie when the phone rang, and Luke sighed before pausing the movie and reaching for it.  “Hello?”“Mr. Skywalker,” came a voice that Luke didn’t recognize.  “I’m Hux, one of Ben’s friends.  I, um, Ben needs your help.”Luke recognized the name and looked over at Mara.  “Hello, Hux.  What do you mean Ben needs my help?”“He, um, well, I mean, uh, his parents are both performing right now and, um, someone needs to come help him before he spends all night in jail.”or:  Ben follows through on a stupid dare and ends up in police custody because of it. His family is not happy.
Relationships: Leia Organa/Han Solo, Mara Jade/Luke Skywalker
Series: (not at all spooky) skywalkers series [october writing challenge 2020] [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947904
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16
Collections: October Writing Challenge - 2020





	dare.

**Author's Note:**

> attempt to break my writer's block day 22. 
> 
> this one I kinda like. kinda. and, um, I've never been arrested so I have no idea how it works. go with it.
> 
> and as always, if you like what you read and you want to see more, please let me know via a comment or kudos or bookmark so that I know I'm not writing into a void. enjoy!
> 
> october 22: "Somehow, you managed to be the even more idiotic version of me."

**1999**

Luke and Mara had just turned on a movie when the phone rang, and Luke sighed before pausing the movie and reaching for it. “Hello?”

“Mr. Skywalker,” came a voice that Luke didn’t recognize. “I’m Hux, one of Ben’s friends. I, um, Ben needs your help.”

Luke recognized the name and looked over at Mara. “Hello, Hux. What do you mean Ben needs my help?”

“He, um, well, I mean, uh, his parents are both performing right now and, um, someone needs to come help him before he spends all night in jail.”

Luke immediately sat up straight, ignoring the way the popcorn in his lap spilled onto the floor. “Jail?!”

Mara’s eyes widened and she set her popcorn to the side, standing up and beginning to gather their coats. “Find out what station, Luke.”

Hux started talking again before Luke could respond. “Yeah, um, we dared him to do something and he did it and then he was arrested for it. Well, we all were arrested but since he’s the one that actually did it, they want to keep him there.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Luke muttered under his breath. “Tell me what station to go to.”

Hux rattled off an address. “And, um, the sooner the better, maybe? Ben’s freaked out and the rest of us are being dragged home by our parents.”

“Tell him we’ll be there soon,” Luke said, hanging up before Hux could say another word. “Mara!”

She walked into the room a moment later with both their coats and her purse. “Do you have the address?”

“Yes,” Luke said, taking his coat from her. “I know what station it is too. We drive by it every time we go to Leia’s.”

Mara sighed and quickly turned off the television, heading towards the door with Luke. “What happened?”

“Ben did something stupid on a dare and that’s all I know.”

Mara shook her head. “He’s got to get some better judgment on what to do and what not to do.”

“Maybe this will scare him into realizing that,” Luke said as they went into the hall and he turned to lock the door. “His friend said Ben is freaked out.”

“If I got arrested, I’d freak out too,” Mara said, heading towards the elevator once Luke was done. “Let’s go.”

About forty minutes later, they were walking into the police station and asking about Ben. A few minutes after that, they were in the same room as Ben and Luke just shook his head. “What the hell did you do?”

Ben swallowed hard. “I was dared.”

“I don’t give a damn,” Luke said seriously. “What did you do?”

Ben stayed silent, bowing his head so he couldn’t look at them. Before Luke could say anything, Mara put a hand on his arm and shook her head. “Ben, sweetheart,” she said softly. “We can’t help you if you don’t tell us.”

Ben swallowed hard but didn’t look up. “We went to the corner store,” he eventually mumbled. “And the guy behind the counter was this complete nerd from school, so Hux said we should mess around with him. So we did.”

“How did you do that?” Mara asked, and Ben took a shuddering breath. 

“Hux dared me to act like I was robbing the store just to see the look on his face.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Luke exclaimed, and Mara smacked him on the shoulder. 

“Keep talking, Ben.”

“So I put the hood of my jacket up and stuck my hand in my pocket, and I went up to the register and told him to give me all of the money in the register or I’d shoot him.”

“Fucking hell,” Luke muttered, and Mara smacked him on the shoulder again.

“Continue.”

“I was just about to put my hood down and start laughing about the look on this nerd’s face when I heard someone yelling at me to put my hands up and turned to see this cop with a gun pointed at me, and I freaked out. We had no idea that there was a cop in the store.”

Luke shook his head. “You’re an idiot. I hope you know that.”

“I know,” Ben murmured. “I just want to go home.”

“I’ll go find out what has to happen for that to be possible,” Mara said, slipping out of the room a moment later.

Luke stood there for a moment before pulling out a chair and sitting down across from him. “Your parents are going to kill you.”

“I know.”

“Your grandparents are going to be desperately disappointed in you.”

“They are all going to be so mad at me,” Ben murmured. “And I know that I shouldn’t do Hux’s stupid dares, but there were a couple of girls with us, and I just…”

“Doing stupid shit to impress a girl,” Luke said, shaking his head. “I’d yell at you for that, but all teenage boys do that. One of these days, I’ll tell you what I did to impress Mara. It didn’t work.”

“But you’re married to her now.”

“Not because of shoving Biggs into the lake in Central Park in the middle of winter, that’s for sure.”

Ben chuckled. “At least you didn’t get arrested for that.”

The door opened and Mara came walking back into the room with an officer, and a few minutes later they were walking out of the police station and to the car. 

Luke drove them to Han and Leia’s building, and after Ben let them into the apartment, Ben curled up on a corner of the sofa while Luke found something for them to watch on television. Mara made Ben a sandwich when he admitted that he hadn’t eaten dinner, and then they sat in relative silence but for a few words every now and then.

And then Han and Leia got home.

They were confused as to what everyone was doing there, Ben supposed to be staying at Hux’s house that night. Luke and Mara turned to Ben, and he took a deep breath before telling Han and Leia what had happened that night. He braced himself for the screaming, knowing that was how his parents communicated important things, but screaming didn’t come. Leia went to her son and pulled him into an embrace while Han shook his head.

“We tried to raise you right,” he started, and Ben ducked his head. “And yet, somehow, you managed to be the even more idiotic version of me.”

“I’m sorry,” Ben mumbled, and Leia hugged him closer. 

“This is what happens when you run around with boys like Hux,” she said seriously. “So this is the end of that.”

“He’s my only friend.”

“He is not,” Leia replied. “You get along wonderfully with Kes and Shara’s son.”

“Poe is in college. I’m still in high school.”

“For another month,” Han said. “I know that we’d said that you couldn’t graduate at the semester, but now I want you as far away from people like Hux as you can get.”

Ben looked over at him. “You’ll let me graduate in January?”

“Yes,” Leia said, drawing Ben’s attention to her. “Your father is right. The sooner we can get you away from them, the better.”

“Thank you,” Ben breathed out. “You know that I wanted to do that.”

Leia looked over at Luke. “Do Mama and Dad know?”

“Didn’t think it was our place to tell them, so no.”

“Go to bed,” Leia ordered, turning back to Ben. “You are getting up early tomorrow.”

Ben gave her a confused look. “I never get up early on Saturdays.”

“No, you don’t, but you are going over to your grandparents for breakfast so that you can explain all of this to them.”

Ben’s shoulders dropped but he nodded. “Okay.”

“Go, Ben,” Han said. “It’s late.”

Ben looked over at Luke and Mara. “Thank you for coming to get me.”

“You’re an idiot,” Luke said, prompting Mara to smack his knee. “I mean, you’re welcome.”

“Anything for you, Ben,” Mara added. “And we’ll join all of you for breakfast at the penthouse tomorrow.”

Ben gave her a thankful look before turning and leaving the room. Leia looked over at Han and he just shook his head. “How the hell did this happen?”

“It happened because of the influence of kids like Hux,” Leia said seriously. “And I know that you didn’t discuss it with me, but good call on the graduating early bit. That makes the most logical sense.”

“It also rewards him and gives him what he wanted,” Han said. “So I wasn’t sure if I was going to get into an argument with you over it.”

“Yes, it gives him what he wants, but it gets what we want to accomplish done as well,” Leia said, turning her attention to Luke and Mara. “Thank you two so much for going to get him. How much was his bail money? I’ll arrange to get it paid back.”

“No bail money,” Mara said, and Luke looked over at her. 

“There wasn’t?”

“They didn’t formally arrest him. He was just detained for questioning. The officer I dealt with said that all of the kids had the same story about what happened, nothing resembling a weapon was found on any of them, and the store owner isn’t pressing charges. The owner recognizes that this was just a stupid joke gone horribly wrong.”

Leia was immediately relieved. “Oh thank God.”

“You have mentioned none of that since we left the station,” Luke said seriously. “Why?”

“Because scaring him about what the potential consequences of his actions could be was far more important than letting him know he’s not in trouble,” Mara replied. “I guarantee you he’ll never do this again instead of just thinking that he got away with it and doing the next stupid dare Hux gives him.”

“That I agree with one thousand percent, Mara,” Han said. “I think we shouldn’t tell him that until we’re at breakfast tomorrow when we can soothe Padmé’s sure to be worry that Ben’s going to end up in jail.”

“Mama definitely is going to worry about that,” Luke said, and Leia nodded.

“Dad will worry about that too. So, yes, we’ll tell him tomorrow at breakfast.”

Mara looked over at the clock and then stood up. “We should head home if we’re going to get up and be at the penthouse for breakfast.”

Luke stood up and nodded. “Yeah, we should. We’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

After an exchange of hugs and another round of thanks, Luke and Mara said goodbye, leaving Han and Leia standing in the living room alone. “Our son is an idiot,” Han said, and Leia laughed.

“None of this is funny and yet it kind of is because it’s a case of like father, like son.”

“I don’t think that we need to tell him the stories of my teenage years,” Han pointed out. “It might give him ideas.”

“He’s a better kid than that.”

“After tonight, I’m not so sure.”

“I am,” Leia said, walking over to Han. He pulled her into his arms and she settled her head on his chest. “We’re going to let Mama grill him tomorrow morning though.”

“Anakin, you mean.”

“Oh no,” Leia said, laughing. “Mama will be far worse for him to face than Dad will be. Trust me on that one. Now let’s get some sleep. We have to get up early enough to wake Ben up so that he’s ready for breakfast because I guarantee you, he won’t get up on his own.”

“You’re probably right about that.”

“I know I am.”


End file.
